On The Nature of Ring Patterns In Ice Crystals of Hailstones: A Signature of Global Warming

In the present work we report for the first time the ring patterns in the ice crystals procured from hailstones at Doom Dooma (27.40N, 95.30E) on March 17, 2016 and April 9, 2017. We have measured the intensity patterns of the rings with the help of a software (ImageJ). Since the ring patterns have been observed in the ice crystals of hailstones only in recent years, it is reasonable to believe that they will give valuable information on the process of ice nucleation and possibly on global warming

Leptonic decay of Heavy-light Mesons in a QCD Potential Model

We study the masses and decay constants of heavy-light flavour mesons D, Ds, B and Bs in a QCD Potential model. The mesonic wavefunction is used to compute the masses of D and B mesons in the ground state and the wavefunction is transformed to momentum space to estimate the pseudoscalar decay constants of these mesons. The leptonic decay widths and branching ratio of these mesons for different leptonic channels are also computed to compare with the experimental values. The results are found to be compatible with available data.Comment: 9 pages,3 table

A long chain alkylated ;1-methylene-;3-butyrolactone from Artabotrys odoratissimus fruit

As part of our ongoing programme for isolation of bioactive molecules from the flora of the Indo-Burma biodiversity belt, an unusual long chain alkylated �-methylene-�-butyrolactone was isolated from the juice of ripe fruit of Artabotrys odoratissimus R.Br. Its structure was determined as 3-methylene-4-pentadecyldihydrofuran-2-one by spectroscopic methods. It was found to have good antifungal activity against Alternaria tenuissima Kunze Ex Pers. isolated from solasodine producing plant Solanum khasianum Clarke. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC)and IC50 for 3-methylene-4-pentadecyldihydrofuran-2-one were found as 300 and 51.37 ;Cg/ml, respectively. The standard captan was found to have an MIC and IC50 of 200 and 35.52 ;Cg/ml, respectivel

Possible use of Punica granatum (Pomegranate) in cancer therapy

The intake of fruits has proven to reduce the risk and incidence of cancer worldwide and plays a crucial role in cancer prevention. Pomegranate (Punica granatum), which belongs to the Punicaceae family, is one such plant that contains beneficial nutrients as well as many bioactive components and important phytochemicals that can be attributed to cancer-related therapeutic purposes. Pomegranate possesses antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, anti-angiogenic, anti-invasive, and anti-metastatic properties, and induces apoptosis. It also down-regulates various signaling pathways such as NF-?B, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, and Wnt, and down-regulates the expression of genes that are responsible in cancer development, such as anti-apoptotic genes, MMPs, VEGF, c-met, cyclins, Cdks, and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, inclusion of the fruit in one's diet would assist in a healthy life protected from cancer and also act as an effective chemotherapeutic with no toxic side effects

The Properties of the Circumgalactic Medium in Red and Blue Galaxies: Results from the COS-GASS+COS-HALOS Surveys

We use the combined data from the COS-GASS and COS-Halos surveys to characterize the Circum-Galactic Medium (CGM) surrounding typical low-redshift galaxies in the mass range ${M}_{* }\sim \,{10}^{9.5-11.5}\,{M}_{\odot }$, and over a range of impact parameters extending to just beyond the halo virial radius (R vir). We find the radial scale length of the distributions of the equivalent widths of the Lyα and Si iii absorbers to be ~1 and ~0.4 R vir, respectively. The radial distribution of equivalent widths is relatively uniform for the blue galaxies, but highly patchy (i.e., it has a low covering fraction) for the red galaxies. We also find that the Lyα and Si iii equivalent widths show significant positive correlations with the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of the galaxy. We find a surprising lack of correlations between the halo mass (virial velocity) and either the velocity dispersions or velocity offsets of the Lyα lines. The ratio of the velocity offset to the velocity dispersion for the Lyα absorbers has a mean value of ~4, suggesting that a given line of sight is intersecting a dynamically coherent structure in the CGM, rather than a sea of orbiting clouds. The kinematic properties of the CGM are similar in the blue and red galaxies, although we find that a significantly larger fraction of the blue galaxies have large Lyα velocity offsets (>200 km s−1). We show that—if the CGM clouds represent future fuel for star formation—our new results could imply a large drop in the sSFR across the galaxy mass-range we probe

NGAL is downregulated in oral squamous cell carcinoma and leads to increased survival, proliferation, migration and chemoresistance

Oral cancer is a major public health burden worldwide. The lack of biomarkers for early diagnosis has increased the difficulty in managing this disease. Recent studies have reported that neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a secreted glycoprotein, is upregulated in various tumors. In our study, we found that NGAL was significantly downregulated in primary malignant and metastatic tissues of oral cancer in comparison to normal tissues. The downregulation of NGAL was strongly correlated with both degree of differentiation and stage (I–IV); it can also serve as a prognostic biomarker for oral cancer. Additionally, tobacco carcinogens were found to be involved in the downregulation of NGAL. Mechanistic studies revealed that knockdown of NGAL increased oral cancer cell proliferation, survival, and migration; it also induced resistance against cisplatin. Silencing of NGAL activated mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)signaling and reduced autophagy by the liver kinase B1 (LKB1)-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-p53-Redd1 signaling axis. Moreover, cyclin-D1, Bcl-2, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) were upregulated, and caspase-9 was downregulated, suggesting that silencing of NGAL increases oral cancer cell proliferation, survival, and migration. Thus, from our study, it is evident that downregulation of NGAL activates the mTOR pathway and helps in the progression of oral cancer

TIPE family of proteins and its implications in different chronic diseases

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The tumor necrosis factor-a-induced protein 8-like (TIPE/TNFAIP8) family is a recently identified family of proteins that is strongly associated with the regulation of immunity and tumorigenesis. This family is comprised of four members, namely, tumor necrosis factor-a-induced protein 8 (TIPE/TNFAIP8), tumor necrosis factor-a-induced protein 8-like 1 (TIPE1/TNFAIP8L1), tumor necrosis factor-a-induced protein 8-like 2 (TIPE2/TNFAIP8L2), and tumor necrosis factor-a-induced protein 8-like 3 (TIPE3/TNFAIP8L3). Although the proteins of this family were initially described as regulators of tumorigenesis, inflammation, and cell death, they are also found to be involved in the regulation of autophagy and the transfer of lipid secondary messengers, besides contributing to immune function and homeostasis. Interestingly, despite the existence of a significant sequence homology among the four members of this family, they are involved in different biological activities and also exhibit remarkable variability of expression. Furthermore, this family of proteins is highly deregulated in different human cancers and various chronic diseases. This review summarizes the vivid role of the TIPE family of proteins and its association with various signaling cascades in diverse chronic diseases

Gas Accretion in Star-Forming Galaxies

Cold-mode gas accretion onto galaxies is a direct prediction of LCDM simulations and provides galaxies with fuel that allows them to continue to form stars over the lifetime of the Universe. Given its dramatic influence on a galaxy's gas reservoir, gas accretion has to be largely responsible for how galaxies form and evolve. Therefore, given the importance of gas accretion, it is necessary to observe and quantify how these gas flows affect galaxy evolution. However, observational data have yet to conclusively show that gas accretion ubiquitously occurs at any epoch. Directly detecting gas accretion is a challenging endeavor and we now have obtained a significant amount of observational evidence to support it. This chapter reviews the current observational evidence of gas accretion onto star-forming galaxies.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dav\'e, to be published by Springer. This chapter includes 22 pages with 7 Figure

A 30 kpc Spatially Extended Clumpy and Asymmetric Galactic Outflow at z ∼\sim 1.7

We image the spatial extent of a cool galactic outflow with fine structure Fe II$^*$ emission and resonant Mg II emission in a gravitationally lensed star-forming galaxy at $z = 1.70347$. The Fe II$^*$ and Mg II (continuum-subtracted) emissions span out to radial distances of $\sim$14.33 kpc and 26.5 kpc, respectively, with maximum spatial extents of $\sim$21 kpc for Fe II$^*$ emission and $\sim$30 kpc for Mg II emission. Mg II residual emission is patchy and covers a total area of $\sim$184 kpc$^2$, constraining the minimum area covered by the outflowing gas to be $\sim$13% of the total area. Mg II emission is asymmetric and shows $\sim$21% more extended emission along the declination direction. We constrain the covering fractions of the Fe II$^*$ and Mg II emission as a function of radial distance and characterize them with a power law model. The Mg II 2803 emission line shows two kinematically distinct emission components, and may correspond to two distinct shells of outflowing gas with a velocity separation of $\Delta v \sim$ 400 km/s. By using multiple images with different magnifications of the galaxy in the image plane, we trace the Fe II$^*$, Mg II emissions around three individual star-forming regions. In all cases, both the Fe II$^*$ and Mg II emissions are more spatially extended compared to the star forming regions traced by the [O II] emission. These findings provide robust constraints on the spatial extent of the outflowing gas, and combined with outflow velocity and column density measurements will give stringent constraints on mass outflow rates of the galaxy.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, accepted to ApJ, the referee comments are incorporated in this versio